I guess it really would depend on the type of trees and the type of soil in the area. There are many bottomland woodland habitats that such as floodplains along the banks of rivers that periodically have standing water, and many species of plants that depend upon moist soil. Those types of woodlands are common here in SE Michigan (well, they were before suburban sprawl), and they contain many plants that thrive in wet environments such as skunk cabbage, ostrich, royal, and cinnamon ferns, sedges, mosses, wild iris, etc. These tend to be wet in the spring and often dry up quite a bit in the summer. If things get too dry, the plants just go dormant. I don't think the two ideas are mutually exclusive if you have the type of trees that can tolerate some moisture, such as red maples, some of the hickories and oaks, ash, black gum, etc. You could probably just selectively remove a few trees if necessary to bring in more light if its very thick forest.

I think they grow everything themselves & offer only the things that do well here. Some that I remember seeing in the past are white butterfly ginger & evergreen wisteria, but there're *tons* of plants, & they're all biggies, easier to transplant. Parking is crowded, & you need to be prepared to haul stuff or bring a cart. There's a restaurant there in the Botanic Gardens, never been to it, as it looks like white cloth napkins & waiters kind of place, & every time I'm at the BG I'm always in baggy shorts & rubber shoes! & there's a tea room, probably a leetle more casual, in the Montgomery Street Antique Mall, at the northeast corner of I-30 & Montgomery. Somewhere down there is a French bakery that I *think* has dining area. It's south of I-30, seems like Montgomery (or University?) slews around to the west, & this is on the right side as you head west.

That seems like a good spot! If you are sizing the rain garden to accommodate the proposed roof expansion, and you live in Ann Arbor, MI, than it would be a good idea to make sure the garden will be larger than 130 s.f. and receives at least half of your roof area runoff (or the equivalent from other existing impervious surface.) Then you get the rain garden fee credit! Or, at least consider it. Then you get the credit, for perhaps not much more work. http://www.a2gov.org/departments/systems-planning/planning-areas/water-resources/Documents/Rain%20Garden%20Info.pdf I like how you took the photo of the view you will be seeing of the rain garden. Nice photo to plan what you will be planting there. Is it sunny? I envision Prairie Dock, but that is just me!

The plant list is similar to what you have described Nandina! Chionanthus is definitely on the planting list, next to the bench. Did not know it has both male and female plants. Have already planted several viburnums down below--Sargent's viburnum. And dwarf fothergilla (witch hazel's cousin) in the front, and some red twig dogwoods but I think I will transplant them, I don't like them in this setting. The larger shrubs are mostly our witch hazel collection, so Hamamelis species and varieties. We surveyed a local native high quality natural area to come up with some ideas on plants that would naturally be growing in this situation. One we are going to try along with the viburnums is pagoda dogwood, but keeping deer off of it will be a challenge. We found native currants in our reference plot but staying away from them due to lots of white pines nearby. Hence the maple-leaved viburnum choices. Debating on Illex verticullata because they don't do well with the excessive deer browsing problems around here. Am trying to solve that problem as well! I am planning on perhaps wild blueberries but so far haven't found any low growing ones and I have enough high stuff for the back. They would replace the redtwig dogwoods. The ones I got are cute, with small leaves close to the stem, so very ornamental but they look too contrived in this natural setting. I have a more formal place for them. As for the salt, YES, there are alternatives, but to get the grounds crew to coordinate and think out of the box may take some doing. I have had to re-do the plant list a couple of times. It's sometimes like searching for the needle in the haystack--native, deer resistant, salt tolerant, shade tolerant . . . I mean c'mon!! :) Our soil is limestone base so somewhat forgiving on salt. I have a huge compost stash for ammending and that helps. Also helps to counteract juglone, which thankfully is not really a problem in that area with the one walnut tree. Anyway, I will post the plant list in a bit for anyone interested. Lots of wildflowers, some ferns and grasses, not all for the rock garden, some for the hill down below. Am focusing on shrubs and trees first though. So far I've shown the two schemes/layouts to a lot of folks for feedback, some like the busier one, some like the more formal one. I'll probably do a hybrid. My MS Paint skills are deteriorating so not sure how many more versions I will play with. Eventually I will map the whole thing. Actually doing a map with grid paper next week with my class. Would love to find a site where you could download standard graphics for trees and shrubs and forbs. That would save me having to draw or try and find clip art for them.